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Fez — Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred has appealed the five-year prison sentence handed down last Friday in France in connection with the Saint-Tropez alleged rape case.
The Assize Court in Draguignan sentenced Lamjarred on May 15 following a closed-door trial requested by the complainant. The court convicted him over an encounter that began in Saint-Tropez and ended in a hotel room, where the woman said he allegedly raped her.
The court also ordered Lamjarred to pay €30,000 (approximately MAD 330,000) in damages and €5,000 (approximately MAD 53,500) in legal fees to the complainant. It did not issue an arrest warrant at the end of the trial, allowing him to remain free while the legal process continues.
The case dates back to August 2018. Lamjarred met the woman at a nightclub in Saint-Tropez before taking her to his hotel room.
The alleged victim said she had agreed to go for a drink. Lamjarred denied rape and maintained that the encounter was consensual.
The trial lasted four days. Prosecutors had requested a 10-year prison sentence, while the defense sought acquittal.
His appeal now sends the case into a new phase before the French judiciary.
The Saint-Tropez case is separate from Lamjarred’s 2023 conviction in Paris.
In that case, a Paris court sentenced him to six years in prison for allegedly raping and assaulting a French woman at a luxury hotel on the Champs-Elysées in 2016. Lamjarred also denied the accusations in that case and appealed the ruling.
The 2016 case had already placed the singer at the center of a wider debate over fame, accountability, and alleged sexual violence in the Arab music scene.
Lamjarred remains one of Morocco’s most famous pop artists, with a massive audience across the Arab world. His song “Lm3allem” became one of the region’s biggest music hits and helped cement his celebrity status.
The latest appeal means the 2018 case remains legally unresolved. Its outcome will carry weight beyond the singer’s career, as it continues to test how courts, fans, and the public respond when a major celebrity faces repeated alleged rape convictions.
